When Ethan was first diagnosed with leukemia in January a friend recommended the book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. It's a book about the history of cancer and the evolution of treatment and survival over the years - written in narrative story form that makes it easy to understand and grasp.
Only a few pages in to the book and I was confronted with this:
"Leukemia is cancer of the white blood cells - cancer in one of its most explosive, violent incarnations...(It) represents a special incarnation of cancer. Its pace, its acuity, its breathtaking, inexorable arc of growth forces rapid, often drastic decisions; it is terrifying to experience, terrifying to observe, and terrifying to treat. The body invaded by leukemia is pushed to its brittle physiological limit --- every system, heart, lung, blood, working at the knife-edge of its performance." (p. 3)
Take another moment and read that description of the cancer that our son was diagnosed with at the tender age of 3.
It takes your breath away right?
We lived that description in the midst of this past winter: one day we were at the pediatrician getting a a snotty nose checked and the next day we were summoned to the ER and quickly admitted to the hospital to begin a life filled with chemotherapy, blood counts, transfusions, sedations, radiation, and everything else that cancer brings. There was no transition; it was immediate treatment and a complete change in pretty much every aspect of our lives.
And though it can be easy to feel like we are alone in this, we are not. There are countless other babies, kids, and adults diagnosed with blood cancers all throughout our city and the world. And the more I've learned about leukemia and chemotherapy, the more thankful I have become for the work that has come before us - the research, and funding, and advances in treatments.
Which leads me to my point, really, my question. As I've mentioned previously, there are a couple of opportunities coming up this Fall that Pete and I are excited about supporting and being a part of - #1: Light the Night Walk on September 27th and #2: fundraising for LLS through Team in Training.
Today's post is focused on our fundraising with Team in Training. We have a team assembled that includes myself, Pete and a few of our friends - all training for the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in St. Louis on October 19th. And although we are excited about the half marathon, we are even more excited about the opportunity to help raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to help other people and families who are currently in this same fight or will be in the future
So, the question: Will you consider making a donation to our team and help us to reach our goal?
You can visit our Team Ethan fundraising website and make a secure credit card donation to our team right on our Team in Training - Team Ethan page, or you can also send a check made out to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and mail it to our address. (If you need our address, send me a message on FB).
Team in Training Website: http://pages.teamintraining.org/gat/rnrstlou14/teamethan
As part of our fundraising efforts we are also re-launching our Team Ethan t-shirt campaign. We've had quite a few people ask us about t-shirts who weren't able to order the first time and so if you didn't get a chance to order a t-shirt and want one - please order one! The t-shirt campaign will be open until August 20th, and then t-shirts will be shipped out within a week or two after that. All funds raised will go toward our fundraising goal for LLS.
To order a t-shirt, click here: https://www.booster.com/teamethanweseloh
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Thank you so much for your support!
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